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Minor hockey’s increasingly major costs

Hockey is so far out of reach for GTA kids that without support from hockey groups, schools and charities it wouldn't be part of their lives. Mary Ormsby explains.

Amit Bansia laces up the skates of his son Rushiraj at the Malvern Community Centre. Rushiraj plays hockey through the Hockey in the Neighbourhood program, which helps kids onto the ice who might not otherwise get a chance to play.
(CARLOS OSORIO / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

By Mary OrmsbySports Reporter

Sat., Dec. 8, 2007

"I'll try to go as far as I can in hockey," said the 13-year-old Toronto athlete, playing in his first house-league season. "I'll try to get into the NHL or the OHL."

Sticks, skates, pucks, a smooth sheet of ice – the main ingredients that all Canadian kids mix at this time of year to measure themselves against idols like Sidney Crosby, Martin Brodeur or Haley Wickenheiser.

Or do they? More precisely, can they?

While most of us take playing hockey for granted, the grim reality is Canada's national game is so far out of reach for GTA kids like Jonathan, that without financial, logistical and moral support from hockey organizations, schools, charities and even strangers, hockey wouldn't be part of their lives.

In the GTA – home to one of the NHL's most fabled franchises and the largest amateur minor hockey league in the world – playing hockey is no longer an inclusive right of passage but increasingly a luxury item that prevents some kids from ever trying the game.

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As the busy Christmas tournament season gets underway, the Greater Toronto Hockey League boasts approximately 40,000 registered players. That seems like an enormous number until it's compared to the 949,945 children under age 14 in the GTA, according to the latest census results.

Playing at the GTHL's AAA level (which is predominantly male) can cost upwards of $5,000 – and that doesn't include equipment. In hockey specialty stores, popular high-end skates are $700, composite sticks top the $200 mark and helmets are more than $100 – there's a quick $1,000 and the kid's not even wearing pants yet.

"We pride ourselves on our sport being very team oriented with all the values that come with our game: Respect, history, tradition and passion," said NHL goaltender Kevin Weekes, who grew up playing competitive hockey in Toronto. "But at the same time, the pricing is such that our sport is becoming an elitist sport."

In this hockey-rich city, who would have thought charity was needed to bring boys and girls into this game? From house leagues and camps waiving fees, to individuals like Weekes sponsoring and mentoring children, to programs like the city-run, Maple Leaf-supported Hockey in The Neighbourhood (HITN) league, there's a subculture of aid pulsing through the GTA to put kids on ice.

And it's still not enough.

"We try to help where we can to connect kids and hockey," said Ray Williams, a long-time leader of the HITN program that lends equipment and teaches skills to close to 300 children – with more on a waiting list.

"But we don't even touch the smallest portion of kids who want to play."

Even families that can initially afford hockey may not be able to keep financial pace at the AAA or even AA levels. In addition to hefty registration fees, thousands of dollars more are routinely demanded by teams for extra weekly ice time and increasingly, payment for coaching staffs.

Former Toronto Maple Leaf Peter Zezel, who played AAA minor hockey with the Don Mills Flyers, decries this cheque-book body checking. He is also incensed at parents buying teams or personally bankrolling coaches to guarantee their child a roster spot and potentially bumping a more talented child without the same financial ability.

"We are catering to the kids that are more spoiled in that they come from money – they want this, they want that – and those are the kids that eventually down the line don't make it because they've had everything given to them easy," said Zezel, who has sponsored needy kids to join leagues and attend his skills camps.

"It's the ones that have to work harder, train harder and don't have the money (who) are hungrier to get (successful) and we're knocking those kids out of the game."

Jonathan, an aspiring blueliner, was one of the lucky ones who found hockey help. At the urging of a school friend, he joined HITN when he was 8 years old. Five years later, he wanted more.

So, in September, he and his mother Janice spent more than an hour on the bus and subway to travel from Jane and Steeles to Scarborough's Malvern Community Centre to receive a free, complete set of hockey equipment with 50 other kids. Just as important as the gear (donated through the One Goal hockey industry coalition program), Jonathan also received a spot in a house league near his Downsview home (from a Hockey Canada initiative) allowing him to walk or take the bus to games.

With both parents on disability and unable to work, Janice Custodio said her hockey-mad son couldn't stay in the sport without this type of help.

"With the amount of money we get, it's just enough to pay the bills," she said.

And she's not alone. One-third of Canadian parents with a child under the age of 18 say they have not been able to enrol their kids in organized sports when they wanted to because it was too expensive, according to a 2005 Ipsos-Reid survey commissioned by Canadian Tire. Compared to baseball's house league and competitive programs (typically $250 to $300 and between $1,000 and $2,000, respectively) and those of soccer (about $200 in house league and $500 for elite play), hockey – with its long list of mandatory equipment – looks more like a mortgage payment than a sports activity.

However, there are other barriers beyond writing cheques.

Speaking in broader terms, former Olympian runner and sports advocate Bruce Kidd said certain activities – and hockey is one – take enormous energy and commitment from adults, who become a "personal manager."

"You not only have to have the time available and the car to get there and the disposable income, but (a parent) can run interference for their kid and that is such a big part of it," said Kidd. "There are jokes in the United States about soccer moms, but that disparaging remark underestimates the enormous skill that these people have and how they're important to whether (a child) makes it in the system or not. It's just huge."

Low income, single-parent families and new immigrants to Canada may be more at risk to get lost in navigating the overwhelming hockey system here, but it's not always the case, Kidd said. He said while newcomers may find certain sports foreign to them, they will listen to what their children want and try to make it happen.

The Bo family did just that when they immigrated to Canada in March 2006. Originally from the Philippines, Emelita and Lucilo moved to Scarborough "for a better future" for their two sons after spending 11 years in Malaysia.

Assertive and enterprising, Emelita, a stay-at-home mother, and Lucilo, who works in electronics, immediately sought out free local tennis and hockey programs for Matt Lawrence, 10, and Michaelangelo, 9, because they couldn't afford private instruction. The boys joined the HITN program at Malvern last winter and improved so quickly they were granted spaces in the Scarborough Malvern Penguins house league this year.

"Some of their peers quit after the first day after falling so much," said Lucilo, who also watched fearfully as his sons tumbled during their skating debut. "But the boys kept getting back up and they really wanted to keep playing."

To do that, the house league fees of nearly $700 in total for the two boys was waived, and the pair received a set of new equipment – worth about $350 apiece – from the same program that aided Jonathan Custodio. The delight on Michaelangelo's face as he picked up his new stick was evident when he described why he enjoyed hockey.

"When I first came to Canada, I didn't have any friends but now I have lots of friends," he said.

Still, providing this opportunity to "get fit and to fit in" says Emelita, the Bo family required aid.

"Especially for a family with a low income, without help like this, we wouldn't have been able to join," Emelita said. "Plus, the boys can walk to the arena with their bags, so there's no extra (transportation) cost."

In a mini-van culture, taking a player and his bag to practices and games without a mini-van is not so simple.

Sam Krishna is a single parent whose son, Daniel, is a goalie. Sam is disabled after undergoing major back surgery, must walk with a cane and cannot work. So, with no van and no car, how did the Parkdale pair get to games?

"Just TTC and a bag with wheels," Sam said, laughing.

It's physically easier now since Daniel is 15 and can lug the heavy load himself to house league games, though Sam is always there to watch. But the financial burden that kept Daniel from accepting a place on a AAA GTHL team is a constant worry for his dad, who diligently salts what money he can to buy replacement equipment "piece by piece" for his sprouting teenager off his disability cheques and birthday presents of cash from Daniel's grandmother.

"It seems like his equipment only lasts a year," Sam said, sighing.

Even though he's sacrificed much to keep his son in hockey – and had help, too, with free hockey camps and HITN play – Sam's outlook is positive. "There are a lot of people who are doing exactly what I'm doing," he said, adding that his drive comes from providing a healthy experience for Daniel.

"The community I live in, there are pockets of violence in the area and I'm just so fortunate I was able to get him involved in hockey and that he actually likes it," Sam said.

"(Other parents) would have given up a long time ago ... slowly, things are progressing for Daniel and I feel the future is not so grim for him, as far as hockey goes."

Weekes, in contrast, is not so sure.

After playing his entire minor career with the GTHL's AAA Toronto Red Wings, the 32-year-old New Jersey Devils netminder fears that parents will opt for cheaper sporting alternatives rather than drain bank accounts for hockey.

"Our sport is supposedly a game that the common Canadian can enjoy and relate to and is passionate about. I think in order to maintain that, the pricing and the financial structure for minor hockey kids and their parents has to change," he said. "Otherwise, we'll continue to lose traction and kids will pursue other sporting opportunities."

Here's a sampling of what is being done in the GTA to assist families in having their children play hockey:

THE GREATER TORONTO

HOCKEY LEAGUE

The immediate future: GTHL considering developing its own charitable foundation.

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